


Headliner Revelation

by CharbroilLaFlamme



Category: A Way Out (Video Game)
Genre: 1970s, Gen, Headcanon, Mild Language, Newspapers, Prison Escape, Revelation, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 21:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15179969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharbroilLaFlamme/pseuds/CharbroilLaFlamme
Summary: Linda isn’t sure how to explain something.





	Headliner Revelation

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer!:  
> This is headcanon stuff so it may or may not connect with canon!

She glanced at the paper Alex had let fall from his hands in shock.

On its front page, sure enough, there was Leo’s face plastered on it in black and white; alongside who was, assumedly, his escapee partner.

He was an older, grizzled man with a blank, focused expression. Ponderous. And almost sad.

_Shit, shit, shit._

Linda had literally dropped what she was doing to catch up with Alex—who had run off after seeing the newspaper.

Then she found Alex—cowering in the produce section. Hiding amongst the pallets of fruit.

“Alex, you scared me.” Linda exhaled. “Alex. Please.” She knelt down to him.

Alex shook his head. “Why’d dad lie?” He wasn’t crying, but Linda could see that he wanted to.

“Honey, it isn’t like that, your dad... he’s...”

Linda, for the first time, couldn’t figure out how to calm Alex down.

There was no way she could get Alex to think anything different.

Alex had learned.

And the boy was smart. Both Linda and Leo had seen to that.

He knew what a mugshot was.

“Alex, let’s head home, okay?”

“Mom...”

“Hun, please. I... I just... I don’t think...” she held her son’s hands. “Your dad isn’t a bad man, and he loves you. Loves _us_. Very much.”

“Was he _ever_ in Italy?” Alex said, wriggling his fingers in his mom’s hands.

Linda pursed her lips uncomfortably. “Baby-doll,” she started, “Being a grown up is _never_ easy...” Linda pondered her own choice of words, “And... sometimes things don’t go as planned.”

Linda began to realise she wasn’t sure what her point even was.

_Shit, where am I going with this?_

Linda momentarily thought back on Alex, the happiest little accident that they’d ever made. The one good thing that they brought into the world. “And some of those things are good, but...”

“I just want to go home, mommy.” Alex said, looking down at the tile floor.

She noticed this wasn’t making Alex any less heartbroken. “I love you, Alex. And so does your dad.”

But as much as she tried to urge him, she only felt worse.

And so did Alex.

She couldn’t help it. It was all she could do for him.

It was clear that the only remedy was for Alex to calm down naturally.

_Don’t force it._

Then they went home, sharing an awkward, weighty silence.

When they arrived, Alex escaped into the camper, shutting the door behind him.

Linda followed to find him sitting in a corner of the combination living room and kitchen.

 She sat down beside him. He looked up at her quietly.

Linda looped an arm around him, pulling him close. “I love you, sweetie.” She said, kissing the top of his head.

Alex buried his face in the crook of her arm.

Linda stroked her son’s hair down, just wishing that life would stop throwing disasters at their family.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes!:
> 
> — Linda is a fantastic mediator, and usually knows how to calm her son, she is at a loss after Alex learns the truth.
> 
> — Alex is a precocious one and is highly perceptive just like his mother. But he is also highly emotional, like Leo.


End file.
